Storm and Stone

They had gathered a crowd by the time Amevina had made the introduction, and once again, a wave of shock passed through the newcomers. The Storm Queen had chosen a

human

, and her father could not resist the urge to point out that fact.

"But, it's a

human

!"

"Very astute, father. I do not believe that my sister, my wife, nor I had noticed that fact after six days with the man."

"Don't be crass, Vorsah," His father, General Swiftwind, chided him.

"Then don't be

naive

, father. Amevina has always walked her own path. Mother accepted this long ago, why haven't you?"

Lord General Talsinar Swiftwind, Lord Marshal of Lake Home, had never been spoken to in such a manner by his children. For a moment, he was stricken dumb, but it did not last. His eyes narrowed and he raised a hand to strike his son. Before he could swing, however, the temperature of the room dropped so far that breath became fog. The change was instant, and the human cleared his throat.

"I wouldn't do that, M'lord. It wouldn't be wise."

General Talsinar's hand fell to the hilt of his sword and he faced Arawn with a scowl of outrage. No one noticed the tiny sparks that flickered between the human's fingers and thumb.

"And just

who

are

you

to lecture me on the wisdom of correcting an errant child?"

"It's not the reason for correction that concerns me, General... but the location. I take serious issue with the method of correction as well, but we'll address that in a moment. Any good commander of troops knows that you praise in public, but rebuke in private. I can see that Lady Cille'rinia is not pleased with her daughter's choice either, but even

she

seems to understand the importance of not making a public spectacle of that fact." Arawn turned to Amevina's mother and smiled, "Thank you for that, by the way. You're an absolute doll for not embarrassing her."

General Talsinar would not tolerate such disrespect, and drew his sword only to find his entire body wreathed in tiny arcs of lightning that danced across his clothes and through to his flesh. It left him unable to move as the jolts penetrated the muscles of his arms and legs just deep enough to disrupt his locomotive functions and lock him in place. He could not even drop the weapon. His eyes darted to the source of the lightning and found that it streaked from Arawn's upturned palm.

Amevina was torn; this was her father, but she also knew enough of Arawn's past to know that her father had committed a grave mistake. She held fast and trusted that her husband-to-be would not go too far. All her father could do was grunt and shudder as the electricity prevented anything more.

"I've known you less than five minutes, General, and already... you are dangerously close to reminding me of the very first bastard I had to put down. Since I left my home to go caving... I've been dropped through a portal on my head, locked up in a rolling cage for falling through said portal and lying unconscious on the roadside, got bashed in the head for talking when I didn't even know that I

needed

to shut the fuck up in the first place, participated in my own

and your children's

liberation, had to fight two fucking duels, interrogated a goddamned assassin, and now I have to

deal with your shit

!"

Arawn held the voltage at what he hoped was around two-hundred volts. With his exclamation at the end, his hand balled into a tight fist and he willed the voltage higher until the general could not suppress his cries of pain. Rawn's hand opened and a blue ball of translucent energy formed in the center of his palm; energy that crackled like pure lightning. The elf found himself released and crumpled to the ground while he gasped for breath, but a hand gripped the back of his neck like an iron vise and hauled him back to his feet. The hand, Arawn's hand, forced him to gaze at the floor about twelve feet away in an empty area of the room.

"Who or whatever brought me here, they changed me when they did, General. Everything I used to be was amplified beyond imagination. Literally, every minute, I learn something new. Figured out the lightning during the walk through the park, here... just now."

The human growled his words into Talsinar's ear. It was a chilling sound that sent fear coursing through his body, much like the lightning only moments ago. This was the voice of death, and after his display no one would dare move to stop his judgement. Talsinar saw his end approach and steeled himself against the inevitable.

"I'm going to make you a promise,

My Lord

, ... my first real vow since coming here, now that I think about it... if you ever raise a hand to Vorsah or Amevina while I draw breath, if I even hear a whisper of it, this will be your fate..."

Without so much as a thought, the ball of lightning streaked from Arawn's hand and slammed into one of the stone tiles of the floor. It exploded in a cloud of dust, and everyone jolted at the blast, but no other damage could be seen.

This is getting more than a little crazy. The more I do, the easier this all gets. It's all starting to make a strange kind of sense now, too,

he thought.

I really have to get Amevina to teach me magic. Maybe it'll help me understand more of what I'm doing

. Arawn tossed the elf onto his face and hovered over the frightened man.

No one moved, no one spoke, no one even knew what to think. It was the most singularly terrifying, bizarre, and confusing event they had ever witnessed. When the Lady found her voice, she placed a tentative hand on Arawn's shoulder. When she spoke, her voice was as soft and soothing as freshly spun silk.

"Young one, since my husband's ill-conceived outburst began, my daughter has explained that you are not on our world of your own free will. I cannot imagine the stress and discomfort you must feel from being in such unfamiliar surroundings. For that, I can forgive this outburst as you are ignorant of our laws, however, please restrain yourself in the future. Things may not be so simple to deal with if there is a next time."

Arawn nodded and faced her. "I... thank you. I apologize."

"You will also be relieved to know that our laws prevent us from interfering with the courtship of our children. My husband and I may have had other hopes and desires for her, but that is where it will end. If you would allow me to speak with my daughter and husband for a few moments, we will allow you all to get cleaned up and prepare a good meal for you afterward."

Arawn nodded and walked outside without another word. He didn't even have to ask anyone to move, everyone made certain that they were not in his way. As he wandered through the park, he found a spot that looked comfortable for meditation and decided to experiment with what he remembered of psychic shields from his pagan books back on Earth.

He first focused his consciousness on the area where his third eye was supposed to be. When he pushed outward from the spot in an attempt to focus his energies into a bubble, he felt a tug in the pit of his stomach. He willed the release of whatever might be causing the tug and felt a surge of power upward that stopped in his heart region. He thought his pulse might spike, but instead of speed it gained power. No longer simply a function of his survival, his heart now beat with force and authority. Again, there was another tug. He repeated the release and the power surged upward again, only magnified. When it slammed into the next block, which felt like it was in the center of his esophagus, it caused the muscles to twitch and awkward sensations pulsed within the nerve endings of his throat.

Oh shit! My gag reflex,

he thought! He tried the release a third time, and it did not work! He began to panic and opened his mouth to groan, but was shocked at the sound which replaced it. A rich, deep thrum resonated from his throat that he found very reminiscent of Tibetan Throat-singing. Even more, the resonance stilled the reaction in his throat and triggered the release itself. The energy surged up harder than before, slammed into his third eye and snapped his head back. At the same time, a translucent bubble of pearlescent blue energy formed around him and pulsed slowly in time with the resonance of the deep note that rang out from his throat. By this point, Arawn had lost all concept of time and could only use his faculties to process the sensations and power that threatened to overwhelm him.

*********

"I must admit, my child," Cille'rinia told her daughter as they exited the hall, "I couldn't say this in front of everyone, but your human handled your father brilliantly. His prejudice has gotten worse since your capture at the hands of the Vaszul. We will continue to take in refugees, but the news of spy-assassins will not endear young Arawn to my husband."

"I know, mother, but...", they were both distracted by a deep humming sound that had begun to emanate from somewhere in the park, "... what is that noise?"

Cille'rinia confessed her ignorance and the two set out in search of the source. What they found was far from anything they might have expected.

When they had located the source, what they found was a crowd of curious people that had encircled something was now obscured by the number of onlookers. They pushed their way through and were surprised to find Arawn, sat cross-legged in meditation with his back to them. He was surrounded by a blue bubble of energy that pulsated in resonance with the hum...

which came from him!

Amevina called his name, but nothing happened and his head snapped back and the hum, now a rumbling

thrum

, grew louder. She could barely make out his expression, he was... amazed.

Everything around them became a flurry of activity as Arawn remained in the bubble. Guards and mages were called in to begin study of this phenomena and try to ascertain if it posed a threat. Amevina refused to abandon him when they tried to get her to back away, but the rest of the crowd gave no such complaints when the human lifted his head back upright and the bubble flared bright.

*********

Inside the bubble, Arawn was lost as to what was happening and had resigned himself to the inevitability of it all. Calm washed over him and he redoubled his focus. The energy surged again into a point just above the top of his head, formed a gleaming white ball as bright as a sun, then faded to a simple point of light as the energy redirected and flowed back downward. It passed through two more points that flared orange and red, respectively. When the energy continued to flow through the red point and out of his body, Arawn drew a deep breath, then something changed. A fire erupted in the base of his spine and crept upward at a snail's pace. He found his senses washed away in a flood of every imaginable sensation, all amplified to indescribable proportions. Arawn made a valiant effort, but he could not withhold the scream that followed.

*********

Both mother and daughter could only look on in fear and confusion. They remained where they had been stood behind him, and the situation continued to escalate after Arawn's head lifted back up. Shortly after the bubble flared a bright pearlescent blue, it dimmed and grew opaque, and all that could be seen were seven glows of color in a vertical line that illuminated Arawn's silhouette. At the top and just above the outline of his head was a violet glow... almost lavender, next was a rich indigo, followed by blue, then green, yellow, orange, and red. A few among the audience screamed when the orb became almost completely transparent and a serpent made of pure flames was shunted from Arawn's back, just a few inches above the base of his spine. The fiery creature unwrapped itself from it's three layered stack and hissed at the onlookers, which drew a few screams, but did not attempt to pass through the orb.

Amevina could only look on in horror as the serpent turned back to Rawn and burrowed into the tip of his tailbone. The guards had gotten the crowd back to a safe distance, and the requested mages had all reached the conclusion that the only potential threat to anyone was to Arawn himself. They had no idea what was happening beyond the notion that he was having some sort of bodily reaction to an unknown arcane force that had entered his body, based on Amevina's explanation of how he called himself

more in every way he could think to test

. When he began to scream, everyone but Amevina and Cille'rinia backed further away.

That was two hours ago, and Amevina could no longer look as the serpent continued its path into her lover, into his very spine, and upward. Her poor man had long since screamed himself hoarse. Each time the serpent passed through the heart of a colored region, it would flare bright and coalesce into a swirling maelstrom of energy that crackled with raw power. It had finally reached the top... it's journey complete, and when the energy flared violet, the orb around Rawn vanished and he screamed one last time with a voice that should have been long gone. His eyes rolled back in their sockets, the energy faded, and he drew a ragged breath as he struggled to calm his body from all the exertion.

No one expected it when he slapped his hands onto his knees and stood up. Arawn slowly turned around until he spotted Amevina and her mother. He focused on them with all the labored precision of a drunk in full-stupor.

"Hey Vee-baby!" He staggered forward, one measured step at a time, and rubbed at his eyes. Then his visage grew pained and fearful. "Baby girl, I... d... I don't understand. What's hap... happening... to me," Arawn whimpered.

Arawn reached out to her and attempted to close the distance, but only managed a few unsteady steps before he collapsed onto his face. Amevina dashed to his side and turned him over, though he was unconscious, he still drew breath. Amevina called for guards to rush him to the healer and she, her mother, Vorsah, Ke'line, and Grok all hurried behind them as they carried him away.

*********

Arawn awoke flat on his back. Every last component of his body that he could think to name and plenty that he could not, ached. When he finally managed to bring his eyes into focus, he found that he lay on a white floor, surrounded by white as far as the eye could see in all other directions. There were no ceilings, doors, or even walls, just neverending sterile white. He rose to his feet, and everywhere he walked it was the same; no end, just more white. After a few moments, he heard footsteps behind him and spun to face the new arrival. Arawn saw only a silhouette as it approached.

"Who are you," he shouted.

There was no answer. The stranger just continued to walk calmly toward him. It came into clearer view as it approached and Arawn could see that it possessed a feminine figure. Onward it came and more details revealed themselves to his strained vision; it was roughly humanoid and covered in matte grey scales. There was no nose, just two lines of pits that began where the nostril openings should be, and followed the inner vertical curve of the cheekbones up and between the eyes where they stopped below the browline. He could see no ears, but there appeared to be some sort of strangely shaped crest atop it's head.

"I said...

Who are you!

"

"Be at peace, my child. I am Mithrala the Mystic, last surviving echo of the Nithraksi, and I am here to answer all your questions."

He wanted to throttle this Mithrala for having the gall to tell him to calm down when she seemed to expect his curiosity. This was beginning to feel much too cliche for his liking. Next thing, they'd be telling him he was some sort of prophesied

chosen one

. Might as well run with it for now.

"Where am I? Am I dead?"

"No, young human. You are not dead. We reside in your mind. Please be silent and I will explain everything in due course. My time with you is limited and there are things you

must

know."

Arawn was astonished in the beginning as she explained how it was they who combined their remaining power and broke through their own barrier to reach out to Earth...

their ancestral home

, with their magics and pull him across the dimensions and into the pocket universe that contained the world of Terrock. A world that they had placed there with their own magic, millions of years ago, and sealed it up tight... all to correct their own horrendous mistake. By the time she had completed the story, however, the human was positively livid and strained to contain his rage.

"Let me get this straight," he began, his voice was calm and serene, even respectful... but there was a dangerous edge to his tone that even the deaf could not miss, " you dragged me across dimensions and shoved some kind of magical steroids up my ass just so I could fix the mistake you made when you woke up the herald of some all-powerful god of randomosity?"

She was taken aback by his crude words, but managed a dignified nod.

"Dagrethon the Malicious, Herald of the Lord of Horror. Maeliferrak is the embodiment of the evil within chaos, not randomosity, just as Lady Nyx is the loving Mother of Change and embodies all that is good and positive within the chaos of evolution and growth," Mithrala corrected.

She was heard, but he continued as though there had been no correction, "and in addition to that, you want me to let you ride shotgun in my head... like you're doing right now, as a matter of fact... you want me to let you ride shotgun in my head and act like a secondary conscience? You honestly want me to let

you

, who failed in every way, to sit in my fucking head and try to tell me how to fix what you fucked up?"

He gave her no time to answer.

"No dice, lady. I'm enough for me to deal with. I don't need company between my ears. Have you even stopped to consider the significance of the episode that just occurred? The episode that allowed you to talk to me? Have you considered what it might mean," he pressed.

"I'll tell you what it means." He stalked toward her now and she found herself taking one step back for every step he took forward. She was quite grateful that there were no walls in this realm... until her back hit one.

"It means that, while you've been standing there talking at me, all the memories that came with the power you bunch poured into me... they just clicked into place. I understand it all now. Its strange, you know... having the memories of seven other people in my head, all of which are beings who lived almost two hundred million years...

each

." At this point he closed his eyes and the edge faded from his words as he continued, "That is a lot of human lifetimes, a lot of experience, a lot of wisdom... a lot of

knowledge.

"

For reasons that she could not fathom, the human had never seemed to notice that she towered over him, and that terrified her even more. When he said the word

knowledge

, all the edge returned and this time, it brought raw malice with it.

"Have you ever heard of the term

ego death

, Mithrala?"

She did not trust herself to speak, so she shook her head in the negative.

"It's a concept among the humans of my world. You'll be advanced enough to understand the definition... ego death is a complete loss of the sense of subjective self-identity."

Her eyes widened a bit as she began to comprehend. Arawn laughed, it was mirthless and brought dire tidings for the future.

"That's all there is left of you now, just an ego. Everything that you are right now, stands between me and the remaining things I need to know in order to set this right. Like I said before, I don't need a companion in my head. Not because I don't want advice, but because I spent half of my life thinking I was insane. I don't need you making that a reality. You also don't deserve another chance to fuck this up even worse that it already is."